Books that authentically reflect the Native American and Indigenous experience.
Middle Grade Fiction Titles
When fourteen-year-old Norvia moves from Beaver Island to Boyne City in 1914, she has to contend with a new school, a first crush, and a blended family, but she also must keep secret her parents' divorce and her Ojibwe heritage.
This collection of intersecting stories by both new and veteran Native writers bursts with hope, joy, resilience, the strength of community, and Native pride.
Benjamin Waterfalls comes from a broken home, and the quickest fix he's found for his life is to fill that emptiness with stuff he steals and then sells. But he's been caught one too many times, and when he appears before a tough judge, his mother proposes sending him to "boot camp" at the Ojibwe reservation where they used to live.
Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous children forced away from their families and communities, are brought together in a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A portal opens to another reality, Askí, bringing them onto frozen, barren grounds, where they meet Ochek (Fisher). The only hunter supporting his starving community, Misewa, Ochek welcomes the human children, teaching them traditional ways to survive. But as the need for food becomes desperate, they embark on a dangerous mission.
Sam, Otter, Atim, and Chickadee are four inseparable cousins growing up on the Windy Lake First Nation. Nicknamed the Mighty Muskrats for their habit of laughing, fighting, and exploring together, the cousins find that each new adventure adds to their reputation. When a visiting archaeologist goes missing, the cousins decide to solve the mystery of his disappearance. In the midst of community conflict, family concerns, and environmental protests, the four get busy following every lead.
When Nathan goes to visit his grandma, Nali, at her mobile summer home on the Navajo reservation, he knows he's in for a pretty uneventful summer, with no electricity or cell service. Still, he loves spending time with Nali and with his uncle Jet. One night, while lost in the nearby desert, Nathan finds someone extraordinary: a Holy Being from the Navajo Creation Story--a Water Monster--in need of help.
Twelve-year-old Malian lives with her grandparents on a Wabanaki reservation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
All her life, Edie has known that her mom was adopted by a white couple. So, no matter how curious she might be about her Native American heritage, Edie is sure her family doesn’t have any answers. Until the day when she and her friends discover a box hidden in the attic—a box full of letters signed “Love, Edith,” and photos of a woman who looks just like her.
Chooch Tenkiller is not thrilled to be spending some of his summer with his Cherokee story-telling uncles and cousin Janees at a convention in North Carolina. While there, the uncles want to visit Judaculla Rock, a place of spiritual significance to the Cherokee people. Little does Chooch know that he has his own connection to the rock--a connection that could put him in mortal danger.
YA Fiction Titles
Haunting illustrations are woven throughout these horror stories that follow one extended Cherokee family across the centuries and well into the future as they encounter predators of all kinds in each time period.
When a mysterious assault lands the brother of his mother's late boyfriend in the hospital, Brian, a twenty-something Indigenous reporter, must pick up the threads of a life he's abandoned, returning to the Tuscarora reservation to discover the truth.
In this complex and emotionally resonant novel about a Métis girl living on the Canadian prairies, debut author Jen Ferguson serves up a powerful story about rage, secrets, and all the spectrums that make up a person--and the sweetness that can still live alongside the bitterest truth. A William C. Morris Award Finalist.
A remarkable love story between two Aboriginal boys -- one who doesn't want to accept he's gay, and the boy who comes to live in his house who makes him realize who he is.
A Snake Falls to Earth is a breathtaking work of Indigenous futurism. Darcie Little Badger draws on traditional Lipan Apache storytelling structure to weave another unforgettable tale of monsters, magic, and family
Daunis, who's part Ojibwe, defers attending the University of Michigan to care for her mother and reluctantly becomes involved in the investigation of a series of drug-related deaths.
Seventeen-year-old French lost his family to pop-up residential schools and has spent the years heading north with his new found family: a group of other dreamers, who, like him, are trying to build and thrive as a community. But when French wakes up in a pitch-black room, locked in and alone for the first time in years, and he knows immediately where he is--and what it will take to escape.
Turning to the Warriors, a gang on the reservation, Josh, now known as Creeboy, starts down the path to becoming a full gang member--cutting himself off from his friends, family, and community outside the gang. It's harder than ever for Creeboy to envision a different future for himself. Will anything change his mind?
Nonfiction Titles
Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition includes informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art to reinforce how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth's oldest teachers: the plants around us.
Since the late 1800s, it has been believed that Native American civilization has been wiped from the United States. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee argues that Native American culture is far from defeated--if anything, it is thriving as much today as it was one hundred years ago. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee looks at Native American culture as it exists today--and the fight to preserve language and traditions.
Eric Gansworth tells his story, the story of his family--of Onondaga among Tuscaroras--of Native folks everywhere. From the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools, to a boy watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to a young man fighting to be an artist who balances multiple worlds.
From the acclaimed Ojibwe author and professor Anton Treuer comes an essential book of questions and answers for Native and non-Native young readers alike. Ranging from Why is there such a fuss about nonnative people wearing Indian costumes for Halloween? to Why is it called a 'traditional Indian fry bread taco'? to What's it like for natives who don't look native?
Spanning more than 400 years, this classic bottom-up history examines the legacy of Indigenous peoples' resistance, resilience, and steadfast fight against imperialism. Indigenous human rights advocate Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz reveals the roles that settler colonialism and policies of American Indian genocide played in forming our national identity.
This book is an essential resource for young readers to learn about the Reign of Terror against the Osage people--one of history's most ruthless and shocking crimes. In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, thanks to the oil that was discovered beneath their land. Then, one by one, the Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances, and anyone who tried to investigate met the same end.
The 12 Indigenous women featured in this book overcame unimaginable hardships--racial and gender discrimination, abuse and extreme poverty--only to rise to great heights.
John Horse was a famed chief, warrior, tactician, and diplomat who played a dominant role in Black Seminole affairs for half a century. A political and military leader of mixed Seminole and African heritage, Horse defended his people from the U.S. government, other tribes, and slave hunters by serving as a counselor of fellow Seminole leaders, an agent of the U.S. government, and a captain in the Mexican army.
As a fashion-obsessed Ojibwe teen, Christian Allaire rarely saw anyone that looked like him in the magazines or movies he looked to for inspiration. Now the Fashion and Style Writer for Vogue, he is working to change that--because clothes are never just clothes. Allaire takes the reader through boldly designed chapters to discuss additional topics like cosplay, make up, hijabs, and hair, probing the connections between fashion and history, culture, politics, and social justice.
Graphic Novels
A boy and his mother refuse to identify themselves as American or Canadian at the border and become caught in the limbo between nations when they claim their citizenship as Blackfoot.
On a journey to uncover her family's story, Spotted Fawn travels through time and space to reclaim connection to ancestors, language, and the land. Adapted from the acclaimed stop-motion animated film of the same name, Four Faces of the Moon brings the oral and written history of the Michif, Cree, Nakoda and Anishinaabe Peoples and their cultural link to the buffalo alive on the page.
An ordinary day in Mr. Bee's history class turns extraordinary, when Echo finds herself transported to another time and place--a bison hunt on the Saskatchewan prairie. Join Echo as she visits a Métis camp, travels the old fur-trade routes, and experiences the perilous and bygone era of the Pemmican Wars.
Derived from excerpts of a letter that went viral and also the basis of a documentary film. In her letter, Jonnie calls out the authorities for neglecting to immediately investigate missing Indigenous people and urges them to not treat her as the Indigenous person she is proud to be if she were to be reported missing. Through the illustrations, the artist imagines a situation in which a young Indigenous woman does disappear, portraying the reaction of her community, her friends, the police, and media.
Explore the past 150 years through the eyes of Indigenous creators in this groundbreaking graphic novel anthology. Beautifully illustrated, these stories are an emotional and enlightening journey through Indigenous wonderworks, psychic battles, and time travel. See how Indigenous peoples have survived a post-apocalyptic world since Contact.
Inspired by true events, this story shares the awe-inspiring resilience of Elder Betty Ross. At a residential school, Betsy is forced to endure abuse and indignity, but her father's words give her the strength and determination to survive.
In Native American traditions, the trickster takes many forms, from coyote or rabbit to raccoon or raven. The first graphic anthology of Native American trickster tales, this brings together Native American folklore and the world of comics. 24 Native storytellers were paired with 24 comic artists, telling cultural tales from across America ranging from serious and dramatic to funny and sometimes downright fiendish.